


Let's Go Up In Flames

by Dikhotomia



Series: Whumptober 2k19: FE3H Edition [27]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can you tell a whole story in two parts?, Day 27 Ransom, Gen, Hopeful Ending, The answer in this case is 'not really' but I did my best, They are my disaster children and I love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21205205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: "It's how she finds herself in a room she doesn't think she belongs in with Rhea and a dozen other high ranking people. She sits as far away from all of them as she can get, the opposite end of the table full to her empty."Professor," Rhea says, hands folded across the table. She looks less like the Archbishop now and more like a general, the headpiece she always wears gone in favor of nothing. Her robes traded for something lighter and easier to move in, the blue and gold of her cloak the only thing Byleth recognizes. "You don't need to look so uncomfortable."ORPart two of "Welcome To My Cage"





	Let's Go Up In Flames

She expects the chaos after what happened in the Holy Tomb, the way the monastery becomes tense and wary, waiting for the possible attack from the Empire. The Emperor sat in a cell somewhere below, somewhere Byleth had no idea existed until she watched from Rhea's side while the knights brought Edelgard down and locked her up.

She also expects the whispers, students talking quietly among themselves, exchanging words about Edelgard and how no one expected her to be the Flame Emperor, let alone a traitor. She hears the dissent as it rises between though, conversations dying off as she walks by, jaw set and book tucked under her arm. She pretends not to hear it, turning a blind eye. Let them talk.

It's how she finds herself in a room she doesn't think she belongs in with Rhea and a dozen other high ranking people. She sits as far away from all of them as she can get, the opposite end of the table full to her empty. 

"Professor," Rhea says, hands folded across the table. She looks less like the Archbishop now and more like a general, the headpiece she always wears gone in favor of nothing. Her robes traded for something lighter and easier to move in, the blue and gold of her cloak the only thing Byleth recognizes. "You don't need to look so uncomfortable."

"I don't know why I'm here," she admits, unsure what to do with her hands. She leaves them on the table, takes them off, folds them in her lap. She settles with fiddling with the edge of her coat, twisting the fabric in her fingers. "I can't tell you anything about Edelgard, if that's what you want." Edelgard may have betrayed them, may have been a terrorist hiding in plain sight. But Byleth knew things that stayed her blade despite her pursuit, that made her want to resolve this without a death.

"That's a shame," Rhea murmurs, contemplating her hands. "I had hoped you would be able to shed some light on why she chose to betray the church."

Byleth's lips purse, teeth grinding till her jaw aches. "It's not my story to tell." Because it wasn't, but she was aware Edelgard wouldn't tell it herself. The girl's stubbornness and iron clad grip on everything made her hard to get close to, and Byleth understood better than anyone why.

Briefly Rhea's expression softens, lips pulling into a quiet frown. "I understand your desire to protect her, Professor-"

A heavy knock at the door draws attention, eyes and bodies swiveling to look at the knight who enters. "Lady Rhea, I apologize for interrupting your meeting...but we just got word from Lord Arundel. He seeks the return of his niece and is willing to pay any price."

"A ransom?" Byleth whispers, frowning. "It could work to our advantage," she adds, turning back to face Rhea. "If you tie Adrestia's hands they can't do anything." And Edelgard doesn't have to die, she thinks, chewing the inside of her lip.

"The Professor has a good point," Seteth interjects, casting a glance at her out of the corner of one eye. Silently, she thanks him. "If we execute Edelgard all we would be doing is inviting a war with Adrestia, at the same time the longer we hold her the more restless the empire grows. Both options lead nowhere good for Garreg Mach."

Rhea sits back, eyes closed, lost in quiet thought. Listening. "I do not wish for a war against Adrestia," she says, breaking the tense silence that had fallen. 

"It's put us in a precarious position," Seteth says, leaning on his elbows. "I understand that you do not wish to let Edelgard go unpunished for her crimes, but we may not have a choice."

The clock chimes, Byleth rises to her feet and excuses herself. 

_Is it arrogant to pray to yourself?_

\-------

"This is a bad idea," Ingrid whispers, even while she follows Sylvain and the few others that dared to come with them. "If we get caught Lady Rhea will have our heads. Not to mention how upset Dimitri will be." He was already furious enough, and it had made things in their class tense. She didn't want to upset him more, or have to get in the middle of another argument between him and Sylvain.

The first one was enough.

"Then go back," Sylvain mutters back, glancing over his shoulder. "No one's forcing you to be here."

"Someone has to make sure you don't do something stupider then we already are," she hisses back, exasperated. Behind them Dorothea stifles her laughter, and Ingrid stiffens when the other girl presses close against her back. _Goddess she wishes she wouldn't do that-_

"Relax, Ingrid. We just want to talk to Edie. I'm sure everyone will understand."

She sighs.

"I think we deserve to know the truth, no?" Lorenz adds, strolling alongside the rest of them. "If I am to continue to ally myself with the Empire, I need to know what it is it's Emperor is thinking."

"I feel the same," Petra agrees. "Edelgard has been nothing but help to me, I am wanting to know her truth myself."

Ingrid bends in the face of it, frowning and considering all the words of both dissent and support. "Alright, fine. But it's just to talk." Because she knows Sylvain and Dorothea and their bad habits. All she can do is hope Lorenz and Petra will help her keep them in line.

They find Lysithea down in the prison as well, the knights on duty asleep at their posts. No one asks what happened, no one asks why Lysithea is there. They all know. Sylvain takes his time unlocking the door, pulling it open with a groan of rusted hinges. 

"Edie?" Dorothea whispers, slipping between them all to enter first. Ingrid follows, torch held aloft. She doesn't expect what she sees, the young house leader curled in the corner as small as she can get. So no one notices her, so she doesn't have to see or be seen. Dorothea approaches slow, hands held up like the other girl was some kind of cornered, dying animal. It takes Ingrid a moment to realize -

Edelgard was watching them. Eyes narrowed, fingers tense where she clings to her biceps.

"What are you doing here?" She rasps, slowly unfolding herself the closer Dorothea gets. "If the knights catch you-"

"The knights are taking a long nap," Lysithea chimes in from behind them, leaning against the wall. "So don't worry about us."

"They change the guard-"

"Every three hours, we know," Sylvain interrupts, hands on his hips. "We have two."

Slowly Edelgard blinks, contemplating each of them that now stood in her cell. 

"We are here to talk," Lorenz supplies, stepping up between where Ingrid and Sylvain stand. "All of us desire to know the truth of what you were thinking. I know it is important to my continued role as your ally and as a fellow noble." 

"Is this...all of you?"

"No," Sylvain responds. "But not all of us could make it either. There are a lot of people that wanna know. We were just the ones who came to ask."

"Even the Professor wants to know," Dorothea adds, now kneeling beside Edelgard, one hand resting against her arm. "She's worried about you, we all are."

"So please," Petra begs. "Tell us your truths."

Ingrid watches the way Edelgard gauges each of them again, the way she withdraws back behind the walls she always had in place. It makes her realize the other girl was so much more complicated then she originally thought. That her snap judgements of her were wrong. Edelgard was afraid, she was angry, and she was impossibly strong.

"What I did was just one of many steps," Edelgard says finally, her resolve crumbling in the slump of her shoulders. Taking a risk that she's likely well aware could backfire horribly for her. Another risk. "Steps to overthrow the church and the crest system."

The silence is cloying and complete, everyone in the room stilling.

"You've all seen first hand the damage that's been done. How many people have suffered because of it, while the church perpetuates it by doing nothing until someone has the audacity to speak out against them. How many people have died? How many more have to?" Edelgard's voice never raises above the quiet rasp, but it gains an edge that speaks of years of determination. "The system has to change, and I'm--" she chokes on her words, laugh bitter and crumbling.

"I was going to be that change. I was going to unite Fódlan once again, tear down the corrupt system we have now and rebuild it into something better. Where no one will suffer because of their crests or lack of. Where the church no longer holds so much influence. I believe that humanity has the strength to forge it's own path, without the oversight of some Goddess."

"That-" Ingrid balks, words failing her. It's insane, she thinks, impossible. 

"It's moot now, because even if I'm not executed, Rhea isn't going to just let me go."

"Not true." Lysithea is the first one to find her voice again, coming to stand in front of them all, looking down at the Emperor sitting on the floor still. "I've heard rumors that the Empire is trying to get you back, the Archbishop is considering ransoming you."

Ingrid watches this new conflict, the way surprise wars with suspicion and confusion. The look of a woman trying desperately not to get her hopes up. The look of a woman who had had said hopes shattered more than once.

There's a lot to think about and her mind has been running nonstop.

"I...see."

"Wait, if they ransom her then Adrestia will be held to whatever that ransom is. Even if Edelgard gets out she won't be able to do anything she has planned, because I bet you the Archbishop will make sure to keep them from striking back."

All eyes turn to Sylvain, arms crossed over his chest and his own internal conflict raging.

"So, what?" Ingrid asks, dread pooling in the pit of her stomach. She knows him well enough to know what words are about to come out of his mouth, knows that she'll be left with a choice that will hurt either way. 

"We break her out. I gotta agree with Edelgard on this one, I'm tired of being strangled under this system. And I bet all of you are too, else you wouldn't have come. Even you, Ingrid. Your father, and I know you love him and know he means well, but you don't want what he wants for you. If we can make a change, why not?"

"In a way it means we will be declaring war against the church and the rest of Fódlan," Lorenz mutters, fingers to his chin in thought. "However, Lady Edelgard is...correct."

"Are you all insane?" Edelgard whispers, and Ingrid catches the flicker of unshed tears in the other girl's eyes. Hope. "If you get caught you'll all end up in prison too, or worse."

"So we will not be getting caught, then," Petra says, making a fist. "We will be succeeding."

All eyes turn to her next, the last one in the room who hasn't offered support either silent or vocalized. Ingrid's teeth grind, hand tightening around the torch until it shudders, firelight scattering shadows in odd fractle patterns. To turn against Dimitri and her father, her kingdom, or turn against Sylvain and who knows who else.  
Just like she thought, both hurt.

"Alright," she says, giving in. "I'll help, but I reserve the right to leave if I want to."

"No one will force you to stay, Ingrid," Edelgard says, rising to her feet, slow and stiff. "You can leave at any time you wish."

"Then it's settled," Sylvain says, grinning. "We'll tell the others, make a plan, and get Edelgard out before the end of the week."

Goddess help her, she can't believe she's doing this.


End file.
